I just got an update from the factory. The part causing the production delay (an antenna connector) was shipped very late, causing all sorts of scheduling problems. The modules have been partially constructed up to the point at which this component is required.

It is expected that final assembly will happen this week, and a team have been scheduled to work Saturday to expedite this.

That's as much information as I have right now.

Rob

Thanx for the update!

Edwin de Vaan
mk2 rev.7 # 080000263 (queue 1232) 6+20Gb blue/red

Yea, thanks for keeping us posted Rob!

-Adam

Edited by omarkhayyam on 06/08/01 03:19 PM.

This is good news! But please tell us poor Americans, is anything being done by SB to get the store working by the time the modules ship? I doubt that's an unreasonable request. A company like this has got to be crazy if it's opposed to getting my $100.

Just my $100.02

DiGNAN
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, etc.

Yes.

WOOHOO!

DiGNAN
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, etc.

Will Oreos help you guys work faster?

Do you guys have Tim Tams? chocolate filled chocolate biscuit with chocolate coating. Or you can get them in 'double dipped'.
The best part is biting off opposite corners, dipping it into a fresh cup of hot coffee and sucking up the coffee like a straw. Then eating the coffee infused Tim Tam in one go.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm


well, If it means we get the tuners sooner or the web site fixed we can ship a few over.

Oh yeah, thanks for the update, Rob.

Murray 06000047
I don't think, therefore I am not.

I don't think they have TimTams in England, because my sister always gets us to send her some. I'm sure there'd be specialty shops somewhere that would import them, though.

The best part is biting off...

Personally, I find that a waste of a good TimTam. Sure, it's yummy, but Tim Tams are nice enough anyway. I prefer chocolate TeddyBears for sucking up coffee.

Richard.

I noticed that Sainsbury's have something called 'Chocolate Os' which look something like I think Oreos look like.

___________________________

Steve - 18GB Mk II Sssmokey

Damn.

I'm really getting curious now. Though I spent a lot of time in the US some years ago (even got around to play football on a highschool team), I never saw or tasted any oreos. Is there any volunteer who would send me some? I would pay up for it through paypal.

cu,
sven

proud MkII owner (12GB blue/green/smoked, #080000113)

I noticed that Sainsbury's have something called 'Chocolate Os' which look something like I think Oreos look like.

Won't do.

Oreos have a very specific smell, texture, and flavor that I haven't seen duplicated anywhere else.

Even here in the US, there are a lot of "generic" cookies that imitate the style of Oreo, but somehow don't quite match them exactly. For instance, the Sunshine company made a cookie called "Hydrox" which looks like an Oreo, and tastes something like an Oreo, but isn't.

The other thing you need to know is that Oreos must, without fail, be absolutely fresh to be any good. The package must be fresh from the store, and freshly opened. Oreos that have spent time in a cookie jar with other stale cookies should be considered poisonously contaminated and should be discarded. (I've heard that some people prefer the taste and texture of stale Oreos, but I can only conclude that they are slack-jawed, mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging troglodytes who can't possibly understand the finer points in life.)

Additionally, Oreos must be eaten with a big glass of ice cold milk to be enjoyed properly. There can be no substitute.

___________
Tony Fabris

In reply to:

---

Additionally, Oreos must be eaten with a big glass of ice cold milk to be enjoyed properly. There can be no substitute

---

Apologies, I hadn't realised what a serious business Oreo eating was. Sounds like you're having the recommended dose of calcium in your Oreo diet.

___________________________

Steve - 18GB Mk II Sssmokey

Yes.

Boy, don't you just hate it when he goes off the deep end and inundates us with excessive verbosity like that?

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

Quite.

I don't know, I think he was just giving Oreo consumption the serious attention that it deserves .

I agree with tony though, sven. Oreos must be fresh, must be consumed with ice cold, 2% milk, and you must try them. They are very tasty, and imitation Oreos never taste quite right.

-Adam

"It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care..."
-office space

I'm gonna sound dense, but what's "2% milk"?


Roger - not necessarily speaking for empeg

2% is the fat content of the milk (look for the blue label ). We have LowFat (2%), Whole (lots of fat), no-fat, and skim milk. Then you add in the assortment of goat milk, etc.

Makes it easier to just drink beer...

Makes it easier to just drink beer...

Perhaps, but beer and Oreos don't go quite as well together.

--Chris Willenbrock
MK2 | 12GB | Queue Registration # 2 (really!)

Ah. When I was a kid, the milk bottles had colour-coded foil tops. Gold was full-cream, silver was normal, and then there was blue and red. One of them was for skimmed, one for semi-skimmed. I don't remember which was which.

Occasionally, birds would peck through the foil top if you didn't bring the milk in first thing in the morning.

Nowadays, the cartons in the supermarket just say "skimmed" and "semi-skimmed". I don't recall what the full-fat ones are called these days.

I've no idea what the fat percentages are.


Roger - not necessarily speaking for empeg

look for the blue label

Not nessisarily true. Where I live, blue labels are for 1% milk and Green is for 2% milk. It changes region to region so YMMV.

Greg

I agree with tony though, sven. Oreos must be fresh, must be consumed with ice cold, 2% milk, and you must try them.

Now, I wouldn't know about Oreos, but when it comes to milk, I am quite particular: it must contain at least 3% milk fat (local full-fat standard is 3.2%, the range in stores being from 0.1% to 4.5%), and must not under any circumstances be sterilized (mild pasteurization is OK if absolutely necessary, as is homogenization). Such milk has the same distinct mildly sourish smell as it had when it left cow (and of course keeps in the fridge two, at most three days). It is increasingly difficult to find such milk even here (only two or three small farms produce and pack it), as most consumers prefer more aggresively pasteurized or sterilized brands that keep longer, but have smell destroyed and taste changed. I particularly hate taste of caramelized lactose traces of which one can find in sterilized milk, the kind that keeps for months at room temperature. This is the food item I miss the most when abroad.


Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

I agree with tony though, sven. Oreos must be fresh, must be consumed with ice cold, 2% milk

Oh well, I guess they should still be okay after the travel from the US to Germany (which usually takes 3 business days, the opposite direction is another story), at least if sent in an unopened package. I would want the milk to be sent along with them though.

cu,
sven

proud MkII owner (12GB blue/green/smoked, #080000113)

You guys are making me crazy. I actually haven't had any Oreos in my house for a long time, as I'm trying to lose weight. I might just break down and buy some on the way home tonight.

And for those overseas who are thinking of getting them shipped: Don't bother. They are a commodity item, a junk food. They're not some sort of gourmet cookie, they're just a different way of packaging sugar for us Yanks to consume. They are, however, hideously addictive and their unique flavor is so well-known as to be a part of our collective culture.

___________
Tony Fabris

What's even worse.... I've dropped 50+ lbs in fat and added back on about 15lbs in muscle over the last 10 months... I haven't even begun to think about sweets or much of anything besides making sure I get enough Protein.

I'm thinking about grabbing the chocolate dipped Oreo's...


THAT, my friends... is just plain sad.




And on another note, I just finished upgrading my player with an additional 30G drive (from 12).... That was probably the hardest warranty sticker I've ever had to ignore, but honestly, it was worth it if for no other reason than to see the layout on the board in person. This machine truely is a very nice work of art, from the PCB layout to the HD chassis. Truely, very well done. And thankfully, everything went fine doing the upgrade. I lost my custom kernel (of course, now that I think about it.. It's stored in the flash ram that you built the builder image with.. NOT on the HD), but that was easily replaced. Caused me a bit of a panic until I realized what had happened... I've got too many experiences with Linux boxes eating their bootloader and then giving you hell rebuilding... I didn't even want to think about the recovery on this guy... I didn't see the Floppy connector inside.

This seemed relevant .

Roger - not necessarily speaking for empeg

Greetings!

Actually, the chocolate covered oreo concept brings up some rather interesting thoughts.

First, they (Nabisco) have started tampering with oreos and making a chocolate creme (misspelling intentional, due to legal reasons*) oreo. Scary. I have also seen blue creme for certain holidays...

Secondly, there is a chocolate factory near where I work. They specialize in wholesale production of chocolate for resale in a lot of small specialty stores. Everything they do is very fresh because it is made right there in the factory, and needs to stand up to very high quality standards. They have won awards for some of their work...

They make chocolate covered oreos, and they ship... (I don't know about shipping outside the US, but they do ship.) Birnn Chocolates... If anyone is interested in ordering some, give them a call. Write me for the phone number...

Paul

* - In order to use the term "cream" in the US, it must contain at least 6% (I think) milk fat. So everyone gets around it with creative spellings of cream. The same thing happens with "cheese". Most stuff you buy off the shelf is declared a "cheese food" because there is little or no real cheese in it.

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

ROFL! Thanks for that one.

___________
Tony Fabris

All this talk over the last few days about Oreos was making me a bit annoyed about living on the 'right' side of the Atlantic since I was missing out on all the fun. The best I could claim was that when I was in Canada a year or so ago I had some Oreo ice cream (which was rather agreeable )

Anyway, on the way home from work yesterday, I stopped for petrol (gasoline) and what did I see on my way through the door of the filling station but little 6-packs of Oreos!!! In Portadown of all places!!! I bought a little packet and tried one on the way home, thinking "I must keep some of these until I can get a glass of ice cold milk" Unfortunately, the 6 biscuits didn't last the 10 mile journey home so I'll have to hope they get some more... there were only about 3 packs left in the shop when I was there.

(I have to say they reminded me a bit of 'Bourbon' biscuits, except they have chocolate 'creme', and the Oreos were much nicer... do chocolate bourbons exist anywhere outside of UK biscuit tins???)

Geoff
---- -------
Got one of the first Mark 2 empegs...

We have LowFat (2%), Whole (lots of fat), no-fat, and skim milk. Then you add in the assortment of goat milk, etc.

What I found strange when I moved to the US was that it was damn near impossible to buy just plain milk. The full-fat one almost always has vitamin D added.

Borislav

What I found strange when I moved to the US was that it was damn near impossible to buy just plain milk. The full-fat one almost always has vitamin D added.

I had the same experience during my rather short visits (all to large metropolitan areas, though; perhaps situation is better in rural areas). This added vitamin D does not have to be that bad, though, if thermal treatment is right (see my milk rant).

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

What I found strange when I moved to the US was that it was damn near impossible to buy just plain milk.

Yeah, I found that (and it wasn't helpful on my last visit to the US when the English person I was with told me that "half and half" was semi-skimmed: in fact it's half-cream).

Peter

I was with told me that "half and half" was semi-skimmed: in fact it's half-cream

And to make matters worse, if you go into an Irish pub, a half and half is, of course, Harp and Guinness.

Strange as it may seem, that's how I got introduced to Guinness. It was in an Irish pub in Essen in Germany.

I figured: Well, if I don't like the Guinness, there's some lager at the bottom, I know I'll like that. And, I'll admit, I was intrigued by the concept of floating Guinness on top of the Harp.

As it turns out, I liked the Guinness -- as evidenced by the amount of the stuff that I drank in the same bar on St. Patrick's Day later that year .


Roger - not necessarily speaking for empeg

So... any news on this? Are they ready to ship now

TeeMcBee
Mk2, # 080000143, 12+30 GB

It's 3am in Portland right now - I doubt I'll hear anything for a few more hours!

Rob

those damn waits....

TeeMcBee
Mk2, # 080000143, 12+30 GB

Any more info, it being a week after this post was .. er.. posted? :)

(O|||||O)

Yes, my contact is on vacation, but I've determined from another source that progress has been made. I've been asked not to mention any dates because of past problems, however the schedule looks like being quite reasonable. I will start to contact Mk.1 upgrade clients (who are owed a free tuner) around the end of this week to confirm shipping details.

Rob

Hey,


I 'feel contacted' by this, shipping address still valid... here we go...


bye
[L]

I know this thread is a bit old but I thought some of you guys out there might like to know that I've just seen Oreo's for sale in Costco Watford, England.

...and I saw them last Saturday in Sainsburys, Cobham.

I'll have to have a look in our local Sainsbury's for some. I'd like to see what all the fuss is about but I didn't want to buy a bulk load from Costco.

This is the most bizarre thread. For the benefit of those of you that don't have access to Oreos, let me just state that there's nothing to go out of your way about. It's more of a mass delusion on the part of us Americans. Which is not to say that I can't eat an entire bag.

The cookie -- sorry, ``biscuit'' (what do you English types call what we Americans call biscuits?) -- is a sandwich cookie. It consists of two fairly crispy chocolate wafers with a ``creme'' filling. The filling is basically much stiffer weeding cake icing. That is, confectioner's sugar and lard. (I'm sure it's not really lard, but some sort of heavy shortening.) The consistency, which is sort of like very dried-out toothpaste, would imply that there's a fairly large sugar-to-shortening ratio. There is sort of a religious debate as to how to eat an Oreo. On one side is the camp that one must dunk the entire thing in milk, eating only the part that enters the milk, continuing this in a geometric pattern until you can't really dunk any more. On the other side are people, myself included, who insist that you must twist the two wafers against each other so that the filling is laid bare. Then one must scrape the filling off with the front teeth. What to do with the remaining wafers is undefined. Some people eat them ``raw''. Others dunk them in milk. Many folks, especially children, just throw them away, as if they were just the packaging. Assuming that you are going to eat the wafers, though, nearly frozen milk (I've never heard any Oreo-related debate as to the fat content) is the only acceptable drink. In fact, I almost never drink milk in any other context.

More denotatively, the Oreo is circular, about 1.75 inches (4.5cm) in diameter. The wafers have a fairly inticate design on the external side, including the Nabisco Thing, that is mutable depending on the precise species of Oreo. The wafer is a fairly dark chocolate, about the color of a dark, bittersweet, or baker's chocolate. (I don't know if any of those mean anything to you, so about like this: CHOCOLATE) The wafer is about 1/8" (3mm) thick. The filling is about the same thickness, but leaves about 1/8" border to the edge of the wafers. There's also the Double Stuf variety that approximately doubles the thickness of the filling. Probably a little less that that, really. There are also some other varieties, including one with chocolate filling and several coated ones. For more Oreo trivia, check out Nabisco's Oreo site.

PS: This all reminds me of an extended plot point in the Justice League America comic book in the early 90s where the leader of the JLA, J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, became physically addicted to Oreos, having crates of them shipped in. Funny stuff.

Am I the only one who thinks the chocolate wafers of the Oreo are the best parts? I can only eat the icing (it's icing plain and simple) if I also eat at least one of the chocolate halves at the same time.

I also, under no circumstances, can stand WHITE milk of any fat content - except maybe condensed. :) Ugh. As far as milk goes (not other milk products, just "milk") I will only drink it flavoured. 99.9% of the time chocolate. Hence look at the small avatar pic I'm using. This has been going on for nearly 30 years, so I don't think I will be changing my ways any time soon. :)

Now another great thing to dunk are digestive biscuits, such asthe "Maria" brand, in coffee. Mmmmm. Though I will admit I haven't had any of those in a few years.

Now I'm starting to feel I should look for an Oreo milkshake during lunch...

Bruno

I also, under no circumstances, can stand WHITE milk of any fat content - except maybe condensed.

"Pooh was so excited that when Rabbit asked him if he wanted honey or condensed milk on his bread, said 'Both!', and then, not wanting to appear greedy, said 'But don't bother about the bread, please...'"

Peter

Am I the only one who thinks the chocolate wafers of the Oreo are the best parts?

You are not alone.

However, I will state that it is absolutely critical that the Oreos must be abolutely fresh in order for the chocolate part to be any good. The chocolate must have that special fresh-out-of-a-freshly-opened-package crispness.

If the Oreos have gone stale (a process which only takes about 30 minutes of exposure to the atmosphere) , then significant amounts of dunking are required to cover up the mushy-ness.

I would also like to re-iterate the critical nature of the milk temperature. Fat content isn't important to me (don't care if it's whole milk, 2%, or nonfat), but it must be absolutely ice cold. It must be so cold that it almost hurts to drink it in gulps.

Ohhhh noooo... what have I resurrected?

Okay, from the sound of it this is a lot like the things we call Prince Biscuits. Two wafers (biscuits), either with chocolade or plain with toothpasty vanilla filling (als in chocolate filling form available).

They are not bad, just the marketing is mainly childish (childish in nature and directed to kids).

Cheers,
Hans

Hmmm I must chime in here and state that I purposely let my Oreos get "stale" before I eat them. I love the aforementioned "mushiness" of the chocolate. I'm not talking totally stale, but I do prefer Oreos that have "aged" enough for the cookie portion to be a little soft.

How one eats one's Oreos is a very personal thing.

Nope, you're wrong. Your personal tastes for stale Oreos are totally irrelevant. Fresh Oreos are the only true Oreos. Your kind should be rounded up and medically treated to remove this medical aberration from your brain chemistry.

()

This is Oreo discrimination. You'll be hearing from my lawyers.

Leave him alone Tony! It's not his fault that he's suffering from a calcium deficiency and anything harder than a prune reduces his teeff to splinters. As for the cold milk, anything stored in a fridge is waay to icey. When he was a lad the only good refridgermarators were the ones that had to be stocked twice a week by the ice man and even then he'd have to let the milk warm in the sun for half an our. Oh no, none of this new fangled self cooling anti-frost hoosamywhatsit, no indeed!

I was introduced to Oreo's by my wife who grew up in Florida. Don't like them too much though. They make them smaller now too.

When I visited the US in October I saw a funny Oreo commercial where this six-year-old kid gets a hold of one of the new mini-oreos at school. He runs home as fast as he can. Into his room to check his size against the markings on the wall (or doorframe?), because he thinks he grew two sizes, now that the oreo in his hand is suddenly so small.

Btw., they make them with chocolate filling too. I like that more, but still I prefer the German "Prinzenrolle" - a "normal" cookie pair with soft light chocolate filling - over any kind of oreos.

Anyway, TTFN.

Georg

Anolther ad I saw in NY was a big boardroom meeting where all the execs are trying to decide what to call the new cookie. They turn to a guy right down the end of the table to ask him, and he has him mouth full of them. He just shrugs and muimbles "I dunno" but because of the mouthfull of cookies it sounds like Oreo.

I guess you have to be there.

thanks to wierd al

In Jonathan Lethem's novel, "Motherless Brooklyn", there's a vignette about an Oreo enthusiast whose tastes are so refined that he can identify which, of two, plants the cookies were baked at. According to him, one of the plants has a master baker, and the other is not so talented. The result is a disparity in cookie quality that Nabisco obscures by mixing cookies from both plants in every package. This character would reportedly open the package, and then examine the cookies one by one, dividing the acceptable cookies from the unacceptable cookies. This was all related to the protagonist by a woman to whom this fanatic was her former boyfriend. It all made for a very vivid and amusing impression. It's all the product of Lethem's imagination, I assume; although I wouldn't know since the delights of the Oreo escape me.

Canadians have an analog to the Oreo, which they find superior. The name escapes me at the moment, but it's oddly reminiscent of strong chemicals. Something "-ox", I believe. And you Canadians and Brits also have your version of the M&M, the Smartie (?), which is also by reputation superior.

But then you guys ruin perfectly good french fries with vinegar, so I'm dubious. My ex-wife, a Canadian, was confounded when she wasn't able to get vinegar with her fries from McDonald's here in the SW US. On the other hand, most people I know ruin their fries with a glob of ketchup, so the American palate is clearly perverse, as well.

I'm an extraterrestrial.

I'm browsing this thread, by the way, since today I'll receive my tuner module via FedEx. Anything I should know?

Hydrox! They exist in the U.S. too. Mentioning them in the same sentence as Oreos should be a capital offense though -- Hydrox cookies are terrible.

I'm pretty sure Hydrox were invented before Oreo's. Oreo is the imposter.

Imposter or not (Oreos that is), Hydrox ARE terrible.

Doing a quick google search, it looks like Hydrox arrived 4 years earlier.

tho, still not quite as tasty as Oreo.

http://www.attachemag.com/stories/archives/02-01/passions/passions2.htm
http://www.culturefreak.com/culturefreak/oreo.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1997/11/05/feat/feat.2.html

This BBS never ceases to amaze me. I had no idea we could go any deeper into the subject than we already had.

most people I know ruin their fries with a glob of ketchup

Ughh, exactly. I prefer to enhance my globs of ketchup by adding a fry or two.

I can't really get excited about this whole Oreo thread, but don't go dissin' ketchup ;-)

-Mike

most people I know ruin their fries with a glob of ketchup

Ughh, exactly. I prefer to enhance my globs of ketchup by adding a fry or two.

I can't really get excited about this whole Oreo thread, but don't go dissin' ketchup ;-)

Oh, and let's not forget those who those who use mayonnaise with their fries.

Fries... FRIES... don't you mean CHIPS?




Oh no... now I'm gonna get it .

Actually, I prefer to dip my fries in thousand island dressing.

"We're out of secret sauce. Here, put this mayonnaise out in the sun."
- Fast food employee, The Simpsons.

And I thought my buddy was crazy.

He was comparing "Oreos from those little 6 packs bought in NY" (vending machine size), Oreos from a normal pack bought in NY, and the same two items bought in CA. He labeled the packages (unopened) and had me "quiz" him, seeing if he could ID them by taste/etc., and he did, consistently.

I guess he wasn't so strange as I thought he was.

D

Actually, I prefer to dip my fries in thousand island dressing.



I won't say anything...Sometimes I like to use Ranch Dressing...Used to use 1K Island, but it got too sweet for me. (That and I ate too many Big Macs at one point in my life)

There's a subculture around here obsessed with dipping fries in a chocolate shake at the Char-Grill. My girlfriend in high school would go and not order a burger, which otherwise would be a capital offense. I've never understood this, as they make pretty bad shakes, IMO, but there is definitely something to be said for combining salty and sweet, especially chocolate. (Popcorn and Junior Mints -- now that's a combination!)

Actually, I prefer to dip my fries in thousand island dressing.

Fries in McDonald's sweet and sour McNugget sauce rocks the party.

On the topic of McDonald's...
http://home-news.excite.ca/news/r/011128/09/odd-mcchina-dc

MacDonald's fries are fine just plain. But any of the sauces they use on any of their products seem to also go well. I prefer the barbeque nugget sauce.

I would never put vinegar on McD's fries. Vinegar has to go on a real chip. McD's a processed and reformed potato mulch - frozen fry.

But when having Fish and Chips, vinegar is mandatory in large amounts. Malt vinegar obviously preferred. I also like black pepper, salt and ketchup with them. Yes, all four. And mayo on chips/fries is pretty damn good. I believe we probably have someone in France or the Netherlands to thank for that.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Poutine. Mmmmm.. Cheese curds and gravy-smothered fries (not cooked in clean oil either!)

Bruno

And mayo on chips/fries is pretty damn good. I believe we probably have someone in France or the Netherlands to thank for that.

Nope! Actually, French fries were invented in my country, Belgium. The French just stole the name. (Don't you just hate the French? ). Over here most people eat their fries with mayonaise, and I wouldn't have it any other way!
Also, don't go comparing the Belgian mayonaise to the eg. the French! It tastes totaly different!
Bottom line : you've never eaten french fries if you've never eaten then the Belgian way!

hi.

Fries in McDonald's sweet and sour McNugget sauce rocks the party.
Actually, my absolute favourite is their Curry McNugget sauce, but I am not sure wether that is the same anywhere else in the world because the one I know is produced in Germany (by Develey). It's a shame McDonalds tries to sell its mediocre Ketchup through grocery stores, but don't do so with their superb Curry sauce.

cu,
sven

Hi

Also, don't go comparing the Belgian mayonaise to the eg. the French! It tastes totaly different!
Bottom line : you've never eaten french fries if you've never eaten then the Belgian way!

I second both statements. The average Belgian fries are much better than any other national average I could say anything about, be it french, american, british (blah, vinegar) or german (my country).
Also, a good belgian mayonaise is about the best you can get. Though I know really good french restaurants with extremely good house-made mayonaise, too. But it _is_ tasting differently.

cu,
sven

There is no curry sauce in New York. Actually, the New York metro area seems to have the least sauce choices. For McNuggets we only have Sweet 'N Sour and Barbeque. I am pretty sure that other US areas have a hot mustard sauce in addition to the other two. On top of that, they don't put mustard on the cheeseburgers. I grew up in New Jersey with mustard on my McDonalds burgers. Did they conduct some focus group that indicated New Yorkers hate mustard?

Argh, I was intending to skip my supper. No way, now !

but there is definitely something to be said for combining salty and sweet, especially chocolate.

Agreed. Apart from clasical ham & melon, try grapes, nuts and rich black bread, apples and cheese, or more mainstream ham and pineapple or venison with cranberries jam. Pancakes (thin ones, like those for creppes Suzette (sp?), filled with wallnuts and chocolate, with warm sauce made from eggs and white whine poured over, everything topped with fresh whiped cream, unsweetened) absolutely must have some salt in dough. Ah, one could go on for ages...

I would never put vinegar on McD's fries.

Neither would I, on potatoes of any kind or persuasion (except potato salad, in which case it has to be aceto balsamico di Modena (sp?) or some other form of strong vinegar made of red wine, with herbs; the choice between virgin olive oil or one made from baked pumpkin seeds is a tough one, though).

McD's a processed and reformed potato mulch - frozen fry.

In local McD french fries (we actually called them something like original French pommes frittes (sp?)) are decent: real potatoes, not potato starch granules. I was opponent of deep-freezing them myself untill I made a couple of experiments. It turned out that half-frying the sticks in not too hot oil, drying them, and later (after freezing or not) finishing frying in very hot oil produces optimal crispness outside while maintaning a degree or softness in the center. My only aditive is a lot of salt. That said, gravy is a welcome additive to potatoes that are somewhere halway between having been fried and baked (thicker sticks, baked in thin laywr of grease - preferably drippings from a nice piece of meat - in a hot oven, so that parts in contact with pan turn crisp and brown.

On Belgian mayo

I personally associate Belgium (aside from Hercule Poirot) with those wonderfull rich beers. Mayo somehow belongs to France to me, though my favourite brand is a domestic one, made here in Zagreb (I used to eat it directly from the tube when I was six or seven), as does mustard (Dijon mustard with green pepper made by Fauchon of Paris, eh...)

On McD

They do adapt somewhat to local circumstances. For example, here in Croatia the favourite burger is McCountry, made of pork rather than beef (which is probably thanks to BSE scare), but with additives and spices so that it actually has some taste (lot of fresh onions, letuce, tomatoes, hot mustard, cheese). Winter special is McBakon (which we call McSpeck - in Zagreb and whole NW of the country the colloquial word we use for bacon is a German one, like for many other things). Now they have a promotion where you can add extra slices of bacon into any burger.

Local sweet-and-sour McNuggets sauce is made from appricots. Weird! (They also have curry, mustard, BBQ, ketchup and mayo.)

I am really hungry now!

On the fries subject: In Germany, I don't know of any single McD that uses "faked" fries (made of potatoe mash), they use processed potato slices anyway (they are covered with some starch that is made from the paring, which should provide a better crispness).

Winter special is McBakon (which we call McSpeck - in Zagreb and whole NW of the country the colloquial word we use for bacon is a German one, like for many other things).

The fun thing about this is that it is called McBacon in Germany, like in most of the rest of the world (if they know that one at all).

My favourite Burger from McDonals is still the Hamburger Royal TS (tomatoe and lettuce), but that is really by _far_ outperformed by the Whopper from Burgerking.

cu,
sven

In local McD french fries (we actually called them something like original French pommes frittes (sp?)) are decent: real potatoes, not potato starch granules.

In the US, McDonald's fries aren't even vegetarian. McD adds some sort of beef product to the mash for flavor. Yum Yum.

FRIES! You haven't had fries until you've tried Thrashers fries from Ocean City Maryland. They fresh cut the potatoes then deep fry them in Fresh! peanut oil until they are golden on the outside and baked potato consistancy on the inside. Then you are offered only two toppings: salt and Heinz apple cider vinegar

My wife introduced me to them, we had to wait in line for 1/2 an hour and I was repulsed by the idea of vinegar, until I tried it. MMMMMMMM!!!!!!! they are out of this world!!!

I'm pretty sure the beef flavour is added in the fries for most countries. It is to compensate for the change to vegetable oil from lard for frying.

I have tried McDonalds in the following countries: Canada (only in Ontario), USA (Mass, NY, NJ, Pensylvania, Ohio), Portugal (Lisboa, Cascais) and Italy (Roma, Firenze, Verona).

They were all the same in flavour, with perhaps only slight difference. Local customs dictate new items on the menus, additional and alternate topings and the names of some of the products. Many European countries are supplied by McD's in the UK (this is the case for Portugal and I can't remember about Italy - I think they had some German and Austrian product packages).

The fries were identical in every McD's I've been to. Sometimes there is a difference in how much they are fried, but that is just an inconsistency that sometimes happens between restaurants. The salt amount also changes. But, McD's fries have always been processed potato. The same as pretty much any other frozen fry. It is not a slice of potato by any stretch of the imagination.

The Royale is a Quarter Pounder in North America. Why the name difference? Ask per Jules and Vern from Pulp Fiction, they don't have pounds in Europe. :)

I don't compare McD's burgers to a real hamburger. It is something that stands on its own and must be enjoyed with all the toppings associated with the specific sandwich (ok, you can make slight alterations, but never have one plain). A real home-made (or that style) burger is a thick SOB that you can east without anything and it should taste great.

That said however, the day I ever touch crap from burger king is the day there's absolutely nothing else around to eat and it's an emergency. YUCK. BK has nothing to touch the BIG MAC. :) And their new fries (to immitate McD's) are really terrible - at least here in Canada.

McD's here in Canada now has new Milk Shakes that are excellent by the way. "Triple Thick" they call them. The flavour is much more natural than the old ones, but also a bit syruppy. There are actually strawberry bits in the strawberry shake. They are VERY (very) rich (ie. seems very fatty).

Ok, so I can enjoy a meal that's over $100 per plate, but I can also sometimes enjoy the most common fast food. :) Now how many of you have any local restaurants like the small Wimpy's franchise here? You can get a burger that is 3/4 pound. Yes, 12oz! It's obviously oval. :)

Bruno

Woohoo! I finally put my Clarion back into my car and just shoehorned the empeg dock in there too! Another couple of weeks and I'll actually have everything connected to listen to "music" :)

For McNuggets we only have Sweet 'N Sour and Barbeque. I am pretty sure that other US areas have a hot mustard sauce in addition to the other two.

You don't get Hot Mustard Sauce? Oh, you have my sympathy. Nuggets with hot mustard sauce is the ultimate.

I think "fries" is the puny stuff you get in burger bars, that turn to mush when you put the vinegar on. Please don't confuse them with proper (Yorkshire) chips.

Hi.

But, McD's fries have always been processed potato. The same as pretty much any other frozen fry. It is not a slice of potato by any stretch of the imagination.

Oh well, while I know I had some fries at McD in Denver (don't remember the exact place) that where definitely made from potatoe mash, I know for sure (i.e. 100%) that the ones they use in Germany are _not_ made from potatoe mash. The kind of potatoe they use, however, is a soft cooking type (correct expression?) i.e. if cooked/fried just a bit too long, they turn into a very soft consistency inside, almost to mash. The reason I know this is that (1st) they would have to explicitly state on the menu that they using "fake" fries if they did and (2nd) I know where they buy their deep frozen pre-cooked fries and visited the factory that produces them.
Different countries however have different rules, so I won't guarantee this for any other country.
As for the BK subject: Other than McD, BK seems to have extremely varying quality levels from country to country (and possibly even within one country). I have been to some BKs that where bad that I returned the complete meal after the first bite, but our local BK is that good, that I actually would compare it's whopper to a home made Burger (though not to a real good one). I would never even think twice about doing so with any Burger McD has ever sold.

cu,
sven

I wasn't going to get into this one, but:

In reply to:

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I know where they buy their deep frozen pre-cooked fries and visited the factory that produces them.

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I've been to a factory (somewhere near Peterborough?) that makes fries for some of the UK burger chains, and yes, they are made by slicing spuds. Different blade spacings for different customers, and careful matching of crop availability (variety, age, etc.). More to it than you'd think, and they're still crap compared to the chip shop on the corner .